Mauricio Pochettino has the opportunity to complete a four-year transfer mission this sumer. But for a different club than he first set out to achieve the deal.
The Argentinian was introduced to the media on Friday afternoon during his first press conference as the new Chelsea head coach. He is already getting to work on the training field with the players who have reported back for pre-season so far, with international stars due to return in the coming week.
This will be Pochettino's second stint in the Premier League, having enjoyed five and a half years as Tottenham boss from 2014 to 2019. And it was towards the end of that Spurs spell that Pochettino came close to a signing he could now complete at Stamford Bridge.
Spurs were linked with an audacious move to sign then 25-year-old Paulo Dybala from Juventus in 2019. A deal was agreed between the clubs, but the move could not be completed due to a problem over the player's image rights, which were held by a third party.
Dybala told the Guardian later that season: "I was close to leaving. That was in the club's thinking, I knew. Until the last minute, we were waiting."
Tottenham pulled out all the stops to complete what would have been a major transfer, but could not make it happen. Pochettino was a huge admirer of his countryman and in need of reinforcements to bolster his Spurs squad, which only saw Tanguy Ndombele, Ryan Sessegnon, Giovani Lo Celso and Jack Clarke come in.
READ MORE: Paulo Dybala to Chelsea transfer: Mourinho admission, Pochettino plea, England trip, £10m clause
Pochettino would later go on to be sacked midway through the following season and he now finds himself across London with the Blues. Who knows what might have been had Spurs sealed the deal with Dybala?
And Chelsea are now being linked with Dybala, who is now 29. He has a reported release clause of €12milllion (£10.3million) for foreign clubs and he fuelled the fires of a move to England when he was spotted at Silverstone on Saturday.
The forward posed for a picture with Max Verstappen after the Red Bull driver finished on pole in qualifying ahead of the British Grand Prix. It seems that Dybala has been keen to take in the sights, having spent the previous day at Wimbledon, and led Blues fans on social media to ponder whether the forward was also involved in transfer talks during his time in England.
